A considerable time passed by, and the princesses grew up to be the most
beautiful girls that could be seen far or near. Then a war began, and
the king had to leave his home.

One day, while he was away at the seat of war, the three princesses sat
at a window looking at how the sun shone on the flowers in the garden.
They felt that they would like very much to go and play among the
flowers, and they begged the guards to let them out for a little while
to walk in the garden. The guards refused, for they were afraid of the
king, but the girls begged of them so prettily and so earnestly that
they could not long refuse them, so they let them do as they wished. The
princesses were delighted, and ran out into the garden, but their
pleasure was short-lived. Scarcely had they got into the open air when a
cloud came down and carried them off, and no one could find them again,
though they searched the wide world over.

The whole of the people mourned, and the king, as you may imagine, was
very much grieved when, on his return home, he learned what had
happened. However, there is an old saying, "What's done cannot be
undone," so the king had to let matters remain as they were. As no one
could advise him how to recover his daughters, the king caused
proclamation to be made throughout the land that whoever should bring
them back to him from the power of the mountain-giants should have one
of them for his wife, and half the kingdom as a wedding present. As soon
as this proclamation was made in the neighbouring countries many young
warriors went out, with servants and horses, to look for the three
princesses. There were at the king's court at that time two foreign
princes and they started off too, to see how fortunate they might be.
They put on fine armour, and took costly weapons, and they boasted of
what they would do, and how they would never come back until they had